In the introduction of the Peking University website, there is a column of "Past Presidents", and the following uses quite concise sentences and chronological axis to show the life of the school leaders from 1898 to the present, and the important positions and social contributions they have held. Among them, we can see that from November 1911 to February 1912, the position of the number one of Peking University was also called the general supervisor of Beijing Normal University, and his name was Lao Naixuan. Judging from this time node, Mr. Lao should be the last "president of Peking University" during the Qing Dynasty!
From the perspective of time, Mr. Lao served as the first leader of Peking University for only three months, and in the past 90 days, he probably did not make any achievements, and his popularity was far less than that of his successor Yan Fu, and later Cai Yuanpei and others... Peking University is probably doing this just to truly show the historical past!
As a talent from the Imperial Examination, as a person who witnessed the rise and fall of the Taiping Army and witnessed the whole process of the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, although Lao Naixuan's political performance was mediocre and conservative, he was undoubtedly a scholar. A lifetime of deeds is worth recording.
Lao Naixuan was born on November 14, 1843, in his hometown of Guangping (present-day Yongnian, Hebei). At the age of 4, he moved with his family to Jiangnan. Soon, the Taiping Rebellion began, and Lao Naixuan's peaceful private school life was disrupted, which also objectively affected his marriage and cast a shadow over his life.
After the Taiping Army was pacified, Lao Naixuan followed the path of his predecessors and took the imperial examination as his career purpose, and in 1871 he was lucky to be a high school.
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Although he gained fame, his official path was not smooth, and until the 1890s, his identity was only a county order. Although his career was hopeless, Lao Naixuan was able to scrupulously perform his duties and do ordinary posts with taste, but it brought unexpected results.
Since he served as the prime minister of Zhejiang University (equivalent to the president of Zhejiang University) in 1903 and had a good grasp of Chinese character culture, Lao Naixuan deeply felt that the difficulty of Chinese characters was increasingly becoming a huge obstacle to opening up the wisdom of the people, and he was invited by the governors of Liangjiang, Li Xingrui, Zhou Fu, and Duan Fang, to engage in the construction of cultural platforms, which led to his invention of "Chinese character cutting education" (probably similar to contemporary "Chinese character Zhuyin") ... This was tried in advance on a small scale such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang,
The influence soon spread across the country. As a result, in April 1908, Lao Naixuan was summoned by Empress Dowager Cixi and was awarded the title of Sipin Jingtang alternate the next day. After that, he was quickly promoted to a higher rank, and in November 1911, Lao Naixuan became the chief superintendent of the Beijing Normal University, and soon served as the acting minister of the Faculty...
February 1912 is a boundary: before Lao Naixuan was an official of the Qing Dynasty, after that, Lao Naixuan became a Qing Dynasty widow - in the Republic of China, he swore not to be an official of the Republic of China, and his heart was in the former dynasty.
Lao Naixuan, whose heart was in the previous dynasty, did not use the republic of China era name, and even used the era number of "6 years of the Great Qing Dynasty" privately.
Whenever there is a ceremony, go to the capital to pay their respects. In addition, he even planned to let the emperor marry a German royal princess on the occasion of Puyi's birthday... Although he did not succeed, he still did not change his original intentions. Interestingly, despite his heart moving forward, when Zhang Xun was restored, Lao Naixuan did not take office quickly, and while he resigned on the grounds of "old age and infirmity", he quietly purchased the official uniform for promotion...
In the last days of Qingdao, Lao Naixuan was infinitely sentimental and published three poetry collections, but in the end he did not see the revival of the Qing Dynasty!
As a late Qing dynasty widow and beneficiary of the imperial examination, Lao Naixuan's calligraphy handwriting is rare.
There are only a few works that can be found on the whole network. Lao Naixuan's handwriting, graceful brushwork, and skillful penmanship, especially the last letter, the grass work, can be called old.
After all, it is a cultural person, the word is the same as its people, it is worth appreciating!